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Le Pen calls for overhaul of her National Front party

This article is more than 12 months old

PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Sunday her National Front party would be completely overhauled after centrist Emmanuel Macron defeated her in France's presidential election.

The anti-European Union, anti-immigration Ms Le Pen said the election pitted "patriots" against "globalists" after candidates from the traditionally dominant socialist and conservative parties were eliminated in an April 23 first-round vote.

Addressing supporters shortly after initial projections showed she lost, Ms Le Pen said that voters would face the same choice in legislative elections next month, in which she said she intended to lead her party.

"The National Front... must deeply renew itself in order to rise to the historic opportunity and meet the French people's expectations," Ms Le Pen said in a brief address to supporters shortly after initial projections were released.

"I will propose to start this deep transformation of our movement in order to make a new political force," she added.

Despite Ms Le Pen's success in making it to the second round of the presidential election, the National Front has struggled to make deeper inroads beyond the northern rust belt and southern regions, where concerns about immigration run high.

Ms Le Pen's father Jean-Marie, the former party leader who was expelled in 2015, said on Sunday his daughter Marine's campaign for the French presidency had been undermined by its proposals to quit the euro and the European Union.

"I think we must speak to France about the real problems, demographic problems, problems of mass immigration," he said. - REUTERS

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